


Oh, Stars!

by HoloXam



Category: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Drabble, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Smoking, Stars, quotes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-02-24 07:12:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13208631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HoloXam/pseuds/HoloXam
Summary: “Mind you, sometimes the angels smoke, hiding it with their sleeves, and when the archangel comes, they throw the cigarettes away: that’s when you get shooting stars.”― Vladimir Nabokov





	Oh, Stars!

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't help myself - in my defense, I was left unattended on a starry night. Happy new year, fellas!

Oh, the stars.

Like most people, Aziraphale does not think much about them. They're just there. He sees them occasionally overhead, when going about his business. Orion, Cassiopeia, and the occasional planet shine in the northern sky. He can, upon inquiry, name every star and constellation, and he will greet a comet like an old friend. In the city, he tends to forget them.

If he's really lucky, he will look up at the right moment, and see how the sky flashes green for a split second, when a particularly spectacular meteor burns up in the atmosphere. And he might make a wish, or remember that someone once said to him that shooting stars are really angels flicking away their cigarettes, so God won't catch them smoking. And he will wonder why heaven is a no-smoking area, and if annual meteor showers then are actually recurring parties in Heaven, like birthdays or graduations. 

And he will remember sharing smokes in the countryside, where the stars which hide from city lights illuminate the deep blue heavens. He will remember delicately plucking cigarettes from another’s fingers, and looking at a dark silhuette, lit up only by the faint glow from the cigarette as he takes a drag. How beautiful he was that night. How peaceful. No god or archangel there to catch him smoking anymore, just the two of them, and the night sky. 

At times like those remembered, he will really _see_  the stars. He will look up, and he will be breathtaken. By the silvery beauty, the slight flickering. By the vastness of the universe, by his own insignificance. How lucky he is to exist; at all, and in the same space and time as this other, wonderful person. The odds are forever worsening, and yet here they both are, and the stars are out. He will pass the smoke back to the other, brushing his fingers, and, unknowingly quoting a movie, he'll say,  _wherever we go, whatever happens, Crowley, when I look up at the stars, I'll know you'll be looking up at the same ones._

And Crowley will smile, and say, _we're all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars_. And with a flick of his fingers he will throw the cigarette away, like a shooting star, and move closer, not for a second remembering when God _did_ catch him smoking. 

Encouraged by a smile, a demon will put a fingertip to an angel's lips and whisper, _and when he shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night, and pay no worship to the garish sun._

 _O, Romeo,_ Aziraphale will whisper, wistfully, _Romeo, wherefore art thou...?_

 _Shut up, angel,_ Crowley will say, breathless, and lean in, forgetting stars and gods and sides and breathing, and the vastness of the universe. And no star-crossed lover, nor any Mallory or Bonnie or Clyde, was ever kissed this well. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! 
> 
>    
> References (old habits die hard)  
> The summary quote was introduced to me through this tumblr post (1) that has been floating around in my mind for a while. It says, "someone told me once that shooting stars are really just angels throwing away their cigarettes before God could catch them smoking". Google informs me that the original quote is from a loveletter from Vladimir Nabokov to his wife, Vera (2).  
> I think it ties in well with the "try to understand why Heaven/Hell is a no-smoking area"-thing of Aziraphale and Crowley's New Years Resolutions (3). 
> 
> 1) http://mishasminions.tumblr.com/post/59588603263  
> 2) http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/vladimir-nabokovs-unpublished-love-letters-are-released-2145646.html  
> 3) http://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/15162006933/crowley-aziraphales-new-years-wishes-from
> 
> Spoken quotes are from Natural Born Killers, Oscar Wilde (Lady Windermere's Fan), and Shakespeare (Romeo&Juliet).


End file.
